On a Friday night, after hanging out with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a nightclub, alone and on the pull. Just before closing time he picks up Glen. And so begins a weekend – in bars and in bedrooms, getting drunk and taking drugs, telling stories and having sex – that will resonate throughout their lives.

Astonishingly self-assured, unassumingly profound. It is one of the most satisfying love stories you are likely to see on screen this year. – New York Times

OutLook, now in its twenty-first year at Cork Film Festival, is running this year from the 9th to the 13th of November 2011.

OutLook Film Festival, part of Cork Film Festival, is Ireland’s longest-running LGBT film festival. Running each winter, the festival provides the LGBT communities of Cork and further afield with the best of Irish and international LGBT filmmaking.

It’s always sad writing about a musical talent that has left us too soon.

It’s extra sad when that person is younger than you and devastating when that person is a good friend.

The passing of Cork DJ and singer John Brosnan on Friday has left Cork in shock, as he was one of the most popular and infectious figures on the music scene.

He will be sadly missed by everyone who has had the good fortune to cross paths with him and I’d like to celebrate his life a little here today.

Broz and Angi were partners in life and have always been synonymous with each other. Back in 1995 I was first introduced to them by the Joe and Denis who were promoting Mór Disco, and we all became friends immediately. The years rolled by and many great shows and adventures were had here and all over Ireland and the UK.

After leaving for Holland at one stage, the two returned here earlier this year much to the delight of their many friends and acquaintances in Cork. Both were DJs, but unlike myself and Angi, Broz was a singer and it was in this field where he really established his reputation.

From the days of fronting soul and disco outfit Sexual Chocolate and tearing the roof off venues such as the Opera House right up to his live singing at the legendary night Workout, Broz was someone who was born to entertain.

Even when not working, he was the life and soul of the party in Cork and he spent the last night I met him last week dancing in front of me singing every song at a gig in the Woodford.

He simply loved music of all kinds and whether it was Karaoke bars, gay bars or super pubs, no mic was safe and Broz was always willing to bring us joy at any time.

Sometimes the gay scene in Cork, which has always been very important in this city, is left at the margins and not documented. Through nights like Mór Disco and Workout and many more, I’ll certainly never underestimate it’s impact, and these and other nights were also good in creating a tolerance and understanding that sometimes can be taken for granted. Thankfully, Cork is very much an enlightened place in 2011 and I think its fair to say the sheer force of personality from Broz has helped this too.

Music has always been a powerful weapon in breaking down all prejudices and with the likes of Broz bringing the music, we were always guaranteed a great party.

With all the journalistic talk of music genres and technical jargon, we sometimes forget that music is simply an expression of emotions and a celebration and during this week and beyond we will celebrate John Brosnan.

The Cork LGBT community has lost a legend, when sadly DJ John Broz, passed away on September the 30th. He had been an integral part of the cork scene long before there was any mainstream gay pubs in the city, with his regular Sunday nighst in the Savoy and also regular spots in the Roundy, Loafers and the Other Place.

The following article was article – which was from GCN in May 2007, when John lived in Amsterdam – perfectly encapsulates what John was about…

John Broz: Back in the saddle

Returning to the People’s Republic to help its citizens celebrate Cork Pride, DJ John Broz is to resurrect the city’s utterly legendary club, Work Out at the Savoy for one night only. Brian Finnegan meets the man in his adopted city of Amsterdam and finds him gagging to bring it all back home

Once upon a time there was a DJ who liked it big, brash and utterly cheesy. He wanted to bring heaven in a handbag to the people of Cork, so he teamed up with a friend and turned the city’s most famous venue into one of the best gay clubs the nation of Ireland has ever seen. But then the nasty forces of the baying heterosexual market forced our hero out on his ear and although he tried to resurrect the magic in another venue, it just wasn’t the same.

That club, for those of you not in the know (shame on you!) was called Work Out and for one all-too-short year it packed queers by the thousand into the environs of Cork’s Savoy Theatre and fed them on a delirious diet of diva pop and sequins, the like of which the People’s Republic had never quite experienced before. The DJ who supplied the sugar was called John Broz, and although he was already a wellknown player on Cork’s scene, Work Out gave him the chance to stretch his beautiful butterfly wings and show the city exactly what he was made off.

“My first gig ever was in The Roundy on Cornmarket Street,” he remembers over coffee and fully legal substances in a little establishment on Amsterdam’s gay-centred Regulierstraat. “I had thought I’d start playing in gay bars first and then move on to the straight scene, but it happened the other way around. All the queens started taking over the Roundy on a Sunday! It was a great laugh.”

But John’s ambition was to play on the legitimate gay scene in the city, so he approached The Other Place with his portfolio of pumped-up tracks. “After a while I got in there and I was a regular for three years. I’ve played everywhere in Cork, but I love playing on the gay scene the most. You can just hop out and have a dance whenever. In straight venues you have to be all refined and separate to the crowd. And there would be fights and everything, so you wouldn’t be so comfortable shouting, ‘Hey girlfriend!’ at your mate across the floor, or anything.”

Work Out was the original concept of a friend of John’s called Joe Kelly. Broz takes up the story: “Joe came up with the idea of doing it at the Savoy and he asked me if I would do it. I was like, ‘Of course!’ Give a gay man a stage that big, and he’s going to say no?

“It started off as a straight/gay mix, but it got really gay very quickly. Over a thousand people would turn up and I’d have things like Wonder Woman on the screens, and I’d wear legwarmers and shorts, the whole Kids from Fame thing going on. I’d play anything from Guns ‘n’ Roses to Shirley Bassey, and everything in between. We did calendars up for the year, with my head on Wonder Woman and John Travolta, and all of the Nolan Sisters! It was outrageously camp. Work Out got huge very quickly. We had ‘80s legends like Jimmy Somerville over, we had Limahl… Adeeva was booked but she never turned up. I was furious over that! She was in Paris and she missed that Chunnel thing. I was like, ‘She couldn’t fly?’ She was coming to Cork by train and boat!

It went for about a year, but then the club itself started getting a name as a gay club. The owners were put off because straight people stopped going on the nights when it was supposed to be straight and they couldn’t sustain it. “So I moved to Bodega, and we changed the name of the club to Fever, but it never took off there.”

The demise of Work Out came as John and his partner Michael were making a hefty life decision. “We felt we couldn’t be a gay couple in Cork, like we couldn’t hold hands walking down the street and be totally overtly together. Also, we needed time away from everything to be together. My partner, Michael was a DJ too – he played Creamfields and that kind of thing. I was the cheesy one, he was the cool one! I was singing in a disco band too, called Sexual Chocolate. We were hardly ever together.”

So the pair decided to move to Amsterdam, where the gay livin’ is easy. Two years later they’re thriving in the Dutch capital and have just bought their dream house on an island north of the city. But John’s beginning to get itchy feet. “I’d love to DJ over here,” he says, “but it’s very difficult to get into. It’s a closed circuit and it’s very hard to break. Now that we’re more established and settled, we can start looking at going back to the music. I miss it now. I didn’t during the first year, because I think I needed a break. But now I’m starting to get itchy again.” Perhaps that’s why when the organisers of Cork Pride called John up, asking him to revive Work Out for one night only, he jumped at the chance.

“I was like, ‘Just try and stop me!’ I didn’t realise people were still talking about it, to be honest. I thought they’d forgotten all about me at home. “I’m really looking forward to going back. And I’m going to play the following Saturday night in Climax too. I’ll be home to see all my girlfriends in Cork, all the queens. You can’t have the same humour and laugh over here. The Dutch are completely different.

“I feel privileged that they still love Work Out in Cork. I can’t wait to do it again. I’m going to do it in rollerblades and kilt this time. I’m trying to come up with loads and loads of ideas.

“People can expect what they can always expect from me. A bit of Tina, a bit of Kylie… and I have one or two surprises up my sleeve too!”

Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?
A bit of both whatever goes really

Do you like to dance?
Hell no hate it

Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted?
Get up shower shave , clean eat get ready for work go to work finish work go to bed, if I was disrupet it would make a good change to my day ;-p

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My ignorant streak that pops its ugly head out from time to time

Are you generally organized or messy?
Organized chaos

What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?
Manager of a four/five star hotel in the states

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
If I could see that I would be able to see next weeks lotto numbers lol

What three words best describe your personality?
Scary, funny, moody

What three words would others probably use to describe you?
I asked other people they wont tell me ;-p

If you were to choose a new name for yourself, what would it be?
Jayden don’t ask

What do you do for fun?
Emmmm let me think lol xx

What do you do most often when you are bored?
Chill out and meet up with my friends

What is something that you are really proud of and why?
How I am getting on in my job , and how the upper management have noticed it and rewarded it

Why did you enter Mr Gay Cork 2011?
Was asked to and it is a great night and what a buzz and of course a great cause

How does it feel to be Mr GayCork.com 2011 & Mr Chambers Popular?
Em it was a great feeling to win chambers mr popular I was delighted as I am not out that long, then to win mr gaycork.com was just the icing on the cake so many of the lads deserved it that night , we all won

Any ideas / plans to make you stand out in the upcoming Mr Gay Ireland final in Dublin?
I have a few things in my brain just have to find time now to put into action

Finally is there anything else you like to say?
I would just like to thank everybody for there support, Dermot Hickey for nominating me, Rosin for all he hard work on the night Bryan O’Connell for been a great help as well, the fellow contests and bring on Dublin and best of luck to all the lads in the final xxxx

Cork will have three representatives in this year’s Mr Gay Ireland. We caught up with one of them, Adrian Kiely who won the first ever Mr Gay Loafers.

Where and when were you born?
I was born in cork on the 10th of Jan 1982.

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.
I live in a two bed appartment on popes quay with my friend eanna murphy.

What is your occupation?
I am a retail sales consultant at meteor.

What do you have in your pockets?
My fags and my phone

What was the last song you sang when no one else was around?
Leona Lewis, Collide.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A Superhero.

When and with whom was your first kiss?
I was about 7 and with one of my best friends, Tracy.

Who has had the most influence on you?
My Mother, she is my rock and has always kept me grounded.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
That would have to be coming an uncle and god father to my beautiful niece Laila and of course winning Mr Gay Loafers.

What things are most important to you now? Why?
being healthy living life and not just letting it pass me by as I reach 30 I have decided to try things I would never have dreamed of doing before.

Who do you trust and depend on?
My family and my friends – they keep me grounded but alos put up with my bad moods and cheer me up when I’m feeling down but they are also there with good advice when needed.

Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?
Think I’m a bit of both I have my days where I think the glass is half empty but also have my days where I think it’s half full.

Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?
I believe that there is someone out there for everyone but also think because I have been single for so long I’m wondering where he is! lol

What do you believe makes a successful life?
Good health good friends and definately a good social life – you need to have a good balnce of everything.

What is your favorite kind of music?
I love pop music especially 90’s pop and am also a big Leona Lewis fan.

What scares you?
Have a big fear of death or losing a loved one, also spiders!

Hugs or Kisses?
Hugs, nothing like a hug when your feeling low.

Who is the most important person in your life, and why?
That would have to be my mother again. Would be lost without her. I came out at 13 and she has supported me all the way through and when I was bullied bad at school she was always there for me.My dad is also amazing but I’m defo a Mammy’s boy. lol

How close are you to your family?
Very close.

Do you care what others think of you?
I think everyone does. I used to be very bad about it when I was younger, its when you get older you realise it’s not what people think of you that matters, it’s what you think of yourself that counts,

What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes?
I love to cook – I make a mean curry, I also love to socialise and a big telly buff.

What is your most treasured possession?
My wax for my hair never leave home without it.

How do you spend a typical Saturday night?
Usually drinks at mine or a friends then clubbing, or we head to Loafers then Chambers – depends how broke we all are. lol

What makes you laugh?
A few of my friends are ditzy, some of the things they come out with make me laugh.

What, if anything, shocks or offends you?
Prejudice ….people who think being gay is a sin and the haters out there.

Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?
I always need a plan but I also find by planning it never turns out the way I think it is.

Do you like to dance?
When I’m drunk, I’m very self concious when sober.

Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted?
I get up, shower and go for the bus and head to work. Once I finished it’s pretty much going home to walk the dog and catch up on a bit of telly depending if I’m going out, then bed. I’m pretty boring really.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My nose, have always hated it. lol

Are you generally organized or messy?
I like to be organised. I hate mess and being anywhere thats messy.

Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at.
Being a good friend, being a good godfather and my job. 3 things I’m bad at, sometimes I have a big mouth, being confident and sticking up for myself.

What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?
To be happy, settled and maybe meet the right person have a family.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A lot older! lol. Hopefully still in a good job and settled.

What three words best describe your personality?
Bubbly, fun and sarcastic.

What three words would others probably use to describe you?
Vain, generous and dependable.

If you were to choose a new name for yourself, what would it be?
I like Blaine.

What do you do for fun?
Going to friends for dinner or movies and heading out at weekends.

What do you do most often when you are bored?
I can’t let myself be bored. I always have to find something to keep me occupied.

What is something that you are really proud of and why?
Winning mr gay loafers I’m really shy and not confident so to stand up in front of people and speak and walk around in my underwear took alot of guts

Why did you enter Mr Loafers 2011?
I have been on the gay scene for 12 years and have never once entered any kind of event. I really wanted to do something before I turn 30.

How does it feel to be Mr Loafers 2011?
Absolutely amazing it was such a rush and I’m still on a high from it.

Any ideas / plans to make you stand out in the upcoming Mr Gay Ireland final in Dublin?
Nothing at the moment I need to get my thinking cap on

Finally is there anything else you like to say?
I would like to thank everyone at Loafers for putting on such an amazing event and the guys that entered were really some of the nicest people I have ever met. Last of all I would like to thank everyone who came out to support and vote for me.

Miss Gay Cork is going to take place again this year, with the initial date has being set for Sat the 26th Of November in Chambers Bar @ 10pm.

In their own words, they said:

We are currently orgaising it and we hope for it to take place in Chambers on Western Road again, at 10pm on Saturday November 26th 2011 but organising is still ongoing. The winner will receive a trophy and prizes on the night. All proceeds are going to the charity Marraige Equality. We hope to get a great turn-out on the night, after all, the audience has the power to vote who they want as second Ms. Gay Cork and we hope that it will continue for years to come!!!

They also are planning a few fund-raisers:

For this year we are hoping to have three fundraisers. We are currently orgaininsing them but we hope to have a Quiz and a fun Auction in October, as well as a charity calendar for all you ladies who love ladies!

If you are interested in entereing please email Kate on msgaycork1@hotmail.com, otherwise please visit their website for more info.